La Ratatouille Extraordinaire

On Saturday, I got up early intending to have some time to myself. I usually read if I have a spare moment, but I just finished “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature last year. It requires some process time after reading, so I didn’t plunge into my next book (which will be “The Grace That Keeps the World” by the way). Instead, I decided to find a movie on TV. It is true that I never have control of the remote, and it is also true that no one else in my home likes the kind of movies that I do (sub-titles make them all groan), so I started flipping through the on-screen Menu looking for MY choice.

Before my selection was even made, I heard footsteps on the stairs. Soon, Mia was snuggled up beside me on the couch, watching the choices click by and saying, “Oh, Mom, Ratatouille is on! Can we watch that?” Of course we can.

If you’ve never seen Disney’s Ratatouille, you truly are missing something. I have no doubt it produces different responses in different people, but every time I watch it, I want to COOK! Just in case, you didn’t understand, I mean COOK! – as in, exotic and gourmet (which I have absolutely no training for at all). Food, however, is such a creative medium.

When the movie was over, Steve and the boys were still asleep, so I moved to the kitchen to begin. Not exactly prepared with fresh ingredients, I ended up with Cinnamon Banana Waffles, covered in powdered sugar and real whipped cream (it was the best I could do considering all I really had on hand was leftover turkey). I carefully cut fresh banana slices to garnish the top, Mia called out, “Breakfast!” and the house started to stir.

The men dragged in, took one look at my masterpiece, and wanted to know if they could just have plain old waffles like they are used to. And where was the syrup? Apparently, there is only one way to eat waffles and, especially during holiday vacation times, you can only eat things that are familiar and understood.

In about a millisecond, I had a wide-range of thoughts and emotions. I went from “I should have made turkey waffles” to “cook your own breakfast next time” to “haven’t you ever seen Ratatouille?” to “I get the remote control for the whole day” to “my whole life is terrible because it lacks adventure.” This was all before 9:00 a.m.

Regardless of the fact that my family behaved badly, there’s a lot of tension between Ratatouille and real life. Movies that depict dreams coming true against all odds can lead us to believe that the everyday parts of our lives are somehow less or unsatisfying. And yet, it is in the faithfulness of everyday that the extraordinary really happens.

Great chefs create great food by ongoing experimentation and years of training (and lots of failure). Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Junot Diaz has horrific stories of the rejection of his earlier works (lots of failure). And I think people who walk closely with God realize that the discipline of everyday faith, and the embracing of lots of failure, are just as important as any epiphany or spiritual high…maybe even more so, for out of these moments the extraordinary reality of lasting CHANGE happens. Even if the way it happens isn't always MY choice.